


Don't Cover Yourself in Thistles and Weeds (Rain Down, Rain Down on Me)

by masononotom



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Death, Complete, F/M, One Shot, noncanon romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 16:39:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14919017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masononotom/pseuds/masononotom
Summary: "He makes his way to the stage, back straight and head high. He hears a murmur in the crowd. He already knows what they’re saying. They can see that he is large and solid andstrong. Maybe eleven can finally have a win. He furrows his brow. Maybe they’re right, but it won’t be him that they welcome back."





	Don't Cover Yourself in Thistles and Weeds (Rain Down, Rain Down on Me)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired by the hunger game fics my friend @chemicalpixie 's series of hunger games fics (which you should check out because they are fantastic) the title is a line from Thistle and Weeds by Mumford and Sons.

It’s reaping day in district eleven and everyone is on edge. Thresh holds his head high as he files in with the rest of the potential tributes. He refuses to let himself look like a target for even a moment. He feels a twinge of guilt knowing that any one of these small figures could be sent to the arena to die and he would be powerless to stop it. Over the sea of dark faces he sees the stage where they’ll draw names. The two large glass bowls sitting opposite each other stare back at him, unflinching. Thresh doesn’t flinch either. He doesn’t flinch as they prick his finger to identify him, and he doesn’t flinch when he remembers that he has enough slips of paper in that bowl to really mean something this year. 

Thresh had no siblings; he lived alone with his mother and grandmother. Their food was not plentiful, but it was enough to get by. It was the others he worried about the most. He had taken the blow of additional slips of paper dozens of times to leave anonymous gifts on the doorsteps of those less fortunate than his small family. He was soft, he knew that, but he didn’t have to look like it. 

Thresh flinches when Rue’s name is called. They hadn’t ever met, not really, but he knew her. He knew everyone here on some level. But Rue was different. He knew her because it was her voice that he looked forward to each day. Her voice sang up through the orchards to signal the end of the work day. It was her voice that the mockingjays carried through the skies above him. It was her voice that rang in his ears when he returned home to care for his family. It was her voice he thought about now. 

As she steps onto the stage, her eyes are wide, but she doesn’t look afraid. She seems to be looking to someone in the crowd. Thresh allows himself a moment to turn his head and that’s when he saw them. Her family. They stand to his left against the ropes that hold back the masses. Rue’s mother is a young woman who looks to be in about her mid-thirties. She is sobbing as she and her child stare at each other in shock. It isn’t Rue’s mother that caught Thresh’s attention though. Holding onto one of her hands is a boy, younger than Rue, looking up at his sister in confusion. He is just one of the many children that stand around the woman’s ankles, not yet reaping age, and not yet old enough to understand that their sister faces a grim fate. Thresh forces himself to rip his eyes away but the image of the boy’s confused face burns its way into his mind. 

When the capital representative, a man in a neon yellow suit with matching hair and a matching obnoxious personality, makes his way to the other bowl Thresh clenches his fists. When he hears his name read, he does not flinch. He feels a sense of panic but it’s fleeting. He then feels something shockingly close to relief. At least this way no one else has to die. He allows himself a moment, only one, to look back at his family as though to say “I’m sorry.” He makes his way to the stage, back straight and head high. He hears a murmur in the crowd. He already knows what they’re saying. They can see that he is large and solid and _strong_. Maybe eleven can finally have a win. He furrows his brow. Maybe they’re right, but it won’t be him that they welcome back. 

Thresh has three visitors. He expects the first two. It breaks his heart to say goodbye to his family, the only family he’s ever known. They tell him he could win. They think he could come back to them. His heart aches but he can’t tell them that he won’t. They have to have some hope. The third visitor he receives is a woman with wide eyes and a toddler on each hip. Rue’s mother. Thresh doesn’t know what made her come to see him, maybe it was the way he had looked at them. Maybe she had seen him, vulnerable, breaking silently amongst the crowd. He doesn’t give her the chance to talk first. 

He’s not good with words, that much he knows. He does everything in his power to convey as much sincerity as he can into what he says. He places both of his hands on her shoulders and looks her fiercely in the eyes but she is not afraid. “I _will _protect her,” is all he can manage before the waver in his voice cuts him off. He releases her and she stares back at him. Her eyes are as wide as ever, now filling with tears as she traces every inch of Thresh, seeming to search through his very soul to see if his words are true before landing back on his face. She sets her jaw and nods. She places a kiss in Thresh’s cheek as though he were her own son. “I know you will,” is all she says.__

____

____

Thresh turns the phrase over and over in his mind. He thinks about it the entire time they are on the train to the training center. It is only once they’re there that Thresh begins to think he might not have to protect her as much as he thought. Rue is small and quick. Her dark complexion blends into the molding of the building until thresh can only see her wide eyes as they watch the other tributes. She steals a career blade right from under their noses and Thresh smiles despite himself. A large, lopsided grin sits on his face as he shakes his head, laughing to himself. He’s not sure, but he thinks the girls from five watched him do it. His smile fades into a more neutral expression. This is not the time to show any weakness. This is especially not a time expose his weakness for Rue. 

When it is their time to enter the arena he sees Rue bolt away from the cornucopia and into the woods. Good. She’ll be safe there. Thresh rushes to the cornucopia grabbing a water bottle, a backpack, and the first weapon he comes in contact with, a crescent sword, before he darts off in his own direction to throw off any suspicions others may have of his intentions. He’ll find her later. 

The girl from five finds him first in the arena. She is small and quick like Rue but lacks her dark complexion. Her hair is red and her face is narrow. ‘Like a fox,’ he tells himself. At first he is wary of her presence, but they soon form a tentative alliance. The fox-faced girl, who reveals her name to be Finch, promises to help him find Rue and to bring him materials from the cornucopia in exchange for protection. He agrees. He doesn’t have any reason not to. 

After one day of looking for Rue, Thresh searches the night sky, unreasonably terrified that her face would show amongst the fallen. He shakes his head at his own stupidity as the anthem fades and her face does not appear. She wouldn’t be killed today. They couldn’t find her. Thresh sleeps with his back facing Finch, knowing she won’t kill him before morning. 

The days that follow are a bit of a blur. Thresh doesn’t really know how to describe them, but then again he never really does. He and Finch don’t talk much, neither would have much to say he’d wager, but he feels a certain closeness building between them that he can’t explain.

When Finch steals from the tributes the first time she is proud of herself. Thresh looks at her with admiration and she presses a quick kiss to his lips. He doesn’t know what to say but she doesn’t expect him to. They sleep that night in each other’s arms. 

Thresh and Finch still spend their day trying to find Rue but she remains elusive. At one point, Thresh could swear he heard a mockingjay sing her four note song. The song taunts him that night when he sees Rue’s face illuminated in the sky. He crumbles into Finch’s arms, unable to keep himself from crying.

When Finch decides they should part Thresh doesn’t question her decision. It’s for the best really. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her and he thinks she feels the same about him. They tell each other their plans regarding the banquet. Finch would hide in the cornucopia, ‘always so clever,’ he smiled to himself. Thresh had no real reason to venture out to the feast so he elected to stay around the outer edge of the arena.

Thresh did not do what he said. He still wants to leave this arena alive. He wants to help Rue’s family, and the only way to do that now is to win. At least then he could apologize. Help them feed themselves. Do something, anything, to relieve this sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when he thinks about that small girl’s death. He was curious about the other tributes. If this would really bring all of them out, if there was really something they needed so desperately they would risk death at the hands of the others. He thinks it could be an opportunity to learn more about the people who killed Rue. 

He hears her name. He’s sure of it. One of those career girls said her name. Thresh’s blood boils. He rushes from his hiding place on the edge of the forest with reckless abandon. He doesn’t care if he dies here, he has to kill her. He has to avenge Rue’s death. She had said she killed her. Her and those other fucking tributes had taken her life before it had even begun. He doesn’t stop himself from yelling in her face. He doesn’t stop himself from picking her up despite her now empty apologies and pleas for mercy. He doesn’t stop himself from cracking her skull. He does stop himself from hurting the girl from twelve. The career had been threatening her. She said she helped Rue. Thresh spares her. “For Rue,” he tells her, and he hopes she understands. He grabs the pack the career girl had with her and his own and runs back into the trees without waiting for a response. 

Thresh pants as he reaches a place deep in the woods. He only now reflects on the gravity of what he has done. He will be a target now. Good. At least maybe then Finch can make it out of this alive. Or maybe that girl from twelve could win and carry on Rue’s spirit, she seems capable enough. Thresh knows he’s forfeited all chances of winning but he doesn’t care. He didn’t want to make it out of these games to start with and he was completely delusional to think he wanted to earlier that day. He couldn’t live with himself. Even after avenging her in this way how could he face those eyes. The eyes that each member of her family shared. The wide watchful eyes haunted him as he sought shelter in the developing storm. 

Thresh sat huddled beneath a large tree and tried not to think about it all. He focused on the good things as he rifled through his acquired inventory. His mother’s smile. Rue’s singing. Finch’s kiss. God he hoped Finch made it out of this. He worried he’d miss the sound of a canon with each crack of thunder. Instead, he missed footsteps. The boy from district two stood over him, his face twisted in rage. Thresh stood and raised his sword but the boy struck him first with his weapon. Thrush knew he deserved this. He’d ruined two’s chances just as they had ruined his. They could’ve survived and Thresh took that from them. He fights only briefly, his blows glancing off of the other boy’s now apparent body armor. Soon, he falls to the ground. He mouths ‘I’m sorry,’ hoping his family will see. He hopes Rue’s family understands.

He closes his eyes, and breaks with the thunder.


End file.
